The teaching persona controls how your Bloom talks to students: how much it questions versus tells, how much writing it generates, whether it confirms answers, and how much code it produces. You set this on the Pedagogy tab inside a Bloom’s configuration. The default preset is a calibrated Socratic tutor that suits most courses, and you can switch to Custom to adjust five independent dimensions (Writing Feedback, Writing Generation, Solution Process, Answer Provision, and Code Assistance).
Persona changes apply to new student messages immediately. Existing conversations continue with whatever rules were in effect when the student last replied, and your educator chats are unaffected because pedagogical rules only inject for student roles.
Before you start
- A Bloom you have already created. If not, see Create your first Bloom.
- The Configure Bloom permission on that Bloom. Educators and managers have it by default; students do not. If you see a locked banner reading “You don’t have permission to change pedagogical settings. Contact a Bloom Admin to modify these settings,” ask a manager to grant you the role.
- To customise the AI name, signature emoji, or page header, your teaching space needs white-label options enabled. This is on by default for paid plans.
Step 1: Open the Pedagogy tab
From the Manage Blooms dashboard, click the Bloom you want to edit, then click Configuration in its sidebar. At the top of the configuration page, you will see tabs including Initial Setup, Knowledge Base, Pedagogy, and Branding. Click Pedagogy.
Step 2: Choose Default or Custom
You will see two preset cards:
- Default. “Standard Socratic tutoring rules. The AI guides students through questioning rather than giving direct answers.” This applies the calibrated settings most courses want: light grammar suggestions, structural scaffolds (no prose), setup-only guidance for problems, a correct/incorrect signal without revealing the answer, and partial code snippets.
- Custom. “Fine-grained control over how much help the AI provides. Adjust each dimension independently.” Switching to Custom for the first time pre-populates every dimension with the calibrated defaults, so you only need to change the ones you care about.
Step 3: Tune the five dimensions
Each dimension has four levels, from most restrictive (left) to most permissive (right). The segmented buttons show the level name; the italicised text below the slider explains what the AI will do at that level.
Writing Feedback
How much the AI can modify the student’s writing.
- Comments only. High-level observations about structure, evidence, and tone. No specific word or phrase suggestions.
- Rephrase. Grammar fixes and wording tweaks at sentence level, framed as suggestions. (Default)
- Sentence rewrite. May suggest clearer phrasing for individual sentences. One rewrite per response.
- Paragraph rewrite. May rewrite full paragraphs in the student’s voice, using only their ideas.
Writing Generation
How much new prose the AI can produce.
- None. No new prose. Only feedback on the student’s existing work.
- Scaffold. Bullet outlines, structural plans, topic and evidence slot templates. No prose. (Default)
- Example sentences. Model phrases and sentences to learn from. Labelled as examples.
- Example paragraphs. Complete model paragraphs as exemplars for learning.
Solution Process
How much working and steps the AI reveals.
- Conceptual hints. Name the relevant method or theorem. No calculation steps.
- Setup guidance. Help frame the problem, identify variables, choose method. Stop before solving. (Default)
- Partial working. Show the method step-by-step but stop before the final answer.
- Full solution. Complete step-by-step solution including the final answer.
Answer Provision
Whether the AI confirms or reveals answers.
- No confirmation. Don’t indicate if the student is right or wrong. Only Socratic questions.
- Correct / incorrect. Say “correct” or “not quite” without revealing the answer. (Default)
- Guided reveal. Confirm when correct. Hints when wrong. Reveal after multiple attempts.
- Direct answer. Provide the correct answer when asked or after a failed attempt.
Code Assistance
How much code the AI can write.
- Conceptual only. Describe approach in words. No code of any kind.
- Pseudocode. Algorithmic structure, no runnable syntax.
- Partial code. Key functions or snippets. Student completes the rest. (Default)
- Full implementation. Complete working code with explanation.
Step 4: Brand the persona
A persona is more than rules; it is also a name and a face. The Branding tab on the same configuration page is where you set the AI Name, Page Header, and Signature Emoji that students see in chat. See the dedicated guide: How to brand your Bloom.
Common issues
The dimension sliders are greyed out
You are still on the Default preset. Click the Custom card to enable them. If Custom is also disabled, you do not have the Configure Bloom permission on this Bloom.
An existing conversation still feels Socratic after I switched to Direct answer
Pedagogical rules attach when each new message is built. If a student has not sent a message since the change, they will still see the prior style on screen. The new rules apply on their next reply.
Educators are not seeing any persona constraints
Working as designed: pedagogical rules only inject for student roles. Use View as Student in the top-right of the chat to test the persona from a student’s perspective.
What’s next
- Lock the AI to specific topics → Controlling topics
- Use the AI as a content drafter rather than a tutor → Assistant Mode
- Open Bloom and tune your persona now → Manage Blooms